The present invention relates to a copier, printer, facsimile apparatus or similar image forming apparatus and more particularly to an image forming apparatus allowing even a person remote from the apparatus to see its operating status
Today, image forming apparatuses including copiers, printers and facsimile apparatuses are commonplace equipment in offices. As for the environment of use of an image forming apparatus, a problem is that a person remote from the apparatus cannot easily see its operating status. This is particularly true with a copier spreading far more remarkably than the other image forming apparatuses.
Environments in which copiers are installed may generally be classified into two kinds, e.g., a distributed environment in which a copier is located at one place of an office to be handled by any person, and a centralized environment in which a plurality of copiers are centralized to be handled by an exclusive operator. The distributed environment appears to be predominant over the centralized environment as far as usual offices are concerned. In any case, however, a person intending to use a copier cannot see its operating status unless walking up all the way to the copier. The person often finds that the copier is outputting a great number of copies or is not usable due to a paper jam or similar error only when reached the copier.
As for the centralized environment, a single operator is, in many cases, in charge of several copiers and cannot see the operating statuses of the copiers other than the currently operating one unless the operator actually walks up to them. In this manner, while a person can easily see the operating status of a copier via an operation panel mounted on the copier if standing by the copier, the person cannot see the operation panel and therefore the operating status at a position even slightly spaced from the copier.
In light of the above, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-297440, for example, proposes a copier including a pair of lamps located at a higher level than the top of a copier body. The lamps each are capable of glowing in a particular color and positioned such that they are visible from a range of 80 degrees or more around the copier body. By causing the lamps to glow in different colors and selectively causing them to turn on, turn off or blink, it is possible to show even a person remote from the copier body the operating status of the copier body.
The above conventional copier, however, involves a dead angle.
Specifically, the operating status of the copier body cannot be identified at all or is extremely difficult to identify at a position where the lamps appear in alignment or only slightly deviated from each other. That is, it is not always possible for a person to see both of the lamps over the range of 360 degrees.
Technologies relating to the present invention are also disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 9-269705 and 10-319793.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus allowing even a person remote from the apparatus to surely see the operating status of the apparatus at a glance without regard to the viewing direction.
An image forming apparatus capable of allowing a person around the apparatus to see its operating status of the present invention includes an apparatus body, and a display section mounted on the apparatus body at a level high enough for the person to see the display section. The display section has an outer periphery visible from a range around the apparatus body and divided such that the display section shows at least two divided portions of different colors thereof when seen in any direction. Two nearby divided portions each are capable of glowing in a particular color.